Requiem
by Wild-Eyed Rose
Summary: Some things remind you of home, and some debts have to be fufilled before you can relax. Leon and Cloud have a talk.


**Title**: Requiem  
**Author**: Rosé  
  


**Notes**: There's spoilers here, mostly for KH endgame, or close enough thereof: through Hollow Bastion, at least. I don't own the characters, as much as I'd like to: all property thereof is owned by Squaresoft. Maybe Disney through a technicality. Read, review, and eat your hearts out.

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You are here alone again

In your sweet insanity

All too calm, you hide yourself from reality

Do you call it solitude? Do you call it liberty?

When all the world turns away to leave you lonely

-See-Saw, The World

          Twilight holds a sort of rapture, but only for those who have the eyes to see it.

          The night fell like smoke and dust. To the west, the sun was a bloody light barely hovering over the horizon. Traces of the vibrant orange that the sun was known for intertwined with shades of red, though it was slowly fading into a dusty pink around the edges. The moon bore witness, a constant spectator to the sun's daily demise as it quietly fell.

          Leon watched the sun fall from his chosen perch, on top of the hotel that his friends, all fellow refugees from Hollow Bastion, had chosen to occupy. It wasn't the highest point in Traverse town, though it was high enough to see the sun burning, the light coloring the pavement below in bright rich hues. From behind him, the water of the fountain danced with the livid crimson color. Almost like spilt blood in color. And like always, he watched the sun set, sitting on the rooftop of the hotel like a gargoyle. Leon had abandoned his jacket and his boots for the warmth of the night, a rare concession to the weather, and comfort, on his part. Both lay discarded nearby, two cloth corpses in the heat. Like the boots and his jacket, his gunblade was drawn, released from the confining sheath that he kept it in. Unlike the two, though, his hand lightly touched the hilt, ready to wield it should the Heartless come. If there was one thing that Hollow Bastion had taught him, all of them, it was that no matter how close you think your friends are, they could be on the other side of the universe for all it mattered when the Heartless came.

          Still, he had an almost relaxed look upon his face as he sat in the setting sun's light. His mind, aside from the tiny part that ways always vigilant, was as good as gone in the sun: it didn't matter in fleeting moments like this if he were Squall or if he were Leon or any such thing. He was, for the moment, completely content. The sunsets in Traverse Town weren't quite like home, but they were close enough to make him forget, if only for a moment.

          "Leon."

          Only for a moment.

          Leon schooled his face to hide his irritation at the interruption, the disruption of the already brief illusion that all was well and there was nothing the wrong with the world, any world. This took only a moment. He had been hiding his feelings since before he had baby teeth, or so Yuffie would tell it. Either way, Leon was practiced at presenting a mask to the world.

          It was only then that, mask in place, he addressed the intruder. "What is it, Cloud?" he dryly asked, sparing the blond-haired man only a brief fleeting glance over his shoulder which metamorphed into a long hard stare. Cloud was, just as Leon was, dressed and ready for any sudden fight which might come along. What caught Leon's eye was the small trim pack slung on Cloud's hip, a small pouch presumably containing the utterly essential and little else. Another lesson of Hollow Bastion: take only what you can carry at a dead run. Cloud had been around for Hollow Bastion's fall as well. 

          "You're leaving," Leon said, a statement which came across as more of an accusation than he had intended.

          "Yeah."

          "Is that _it?" This time, the accusatory tone in Leon's voice was intended and came across as sharp as a sword's edge, though he kept his profile stubbornly turned towards the play of colors to the west. "You're abandoning us, and you can't even say anything aside from 'yeah'?"_

          "Sorry." Cloud crossed the rooftop to join Leon in his formerly solitary observation of the sunset. With a slight thud, he flopped down, legs limply hanging over the edge. Who knows what Aeris and Yuffie, who occupied the room below, would have thought of the noise, were they paying attention to hear. They sat in silence for a long while, watching as the sun descended further downward, the bright colors being diluted by the smoke that was the night rising. The orange faded to a light yellow, and the reds turned pink and grey and purple.

          The night was rising.

          "I see why you like the sunset," Cloud finally said, as the first chill of the night snapped and the stars started to come out one by one and the moon was a sliver in the west, brightly burning. Burning to remind people that no matter how deep the darkness, there was always some form of the light.

          Leon glanced to where the blond swordsman sat. "…why?"

          "It reminds me of home." Cloud drew his legs up from the edge and hugged his knees: a faintly child-like gesture rendered somewhat ridiculous due to the sword he kept strapped on his back. And for a moment, he looked like the boy he was back in Hollow Bastion playing with swords that were too large for his childish frame.

          Leon looked away. "So, why are you going?"

          "I found him." Cloud's voice was as cold as the incoming night, and dark enough to rival the depths of the space above them, minus the stars. "Sephiroth," he said, quoting the name of the Hollow Bastion swordsman turned to the darkness, one of the people believed responsible for the fall of Hollow Bastion and the death of Ansem, their leader.

          "I see."

          "He's at Olympus," Cloud continued, as he pulled himself up from the edge of the rooftop. Leon remained unmoving as the blond started to walk away. "I have to go, Leon."

          "What do you want me to tell the others? Tell Aeris?"

          "Whatever you want." Cloud paused, standing on the opposite end of the building. "I'll be there. It isn't like we won't ever see each other, right?"

          "Yeah. Don't get yourself killed."

          "You too," he said, and leapt down from the rooftop to the street below. His footsteps echoed as he ran from hotel to the edge of the world, and beyond. To Olympus.

          Leon sat there, watching the waltz of the stars above and the slow moon rising. It was a long time before he gathered his things and finally went inside: he had no idea of what he'd tell to the others.


End file.
